Perspective

The last week in April, CARECEN SF paralegal Gladys Rodriguez and I headed down to Tijuana, Mexico to help members of the Refugee Caravan prepare to seek asylum in the United States. We arrived eager to help and unsure of exactly how the week would progress. Four days later, we left Mexico impressed with the bravery and resilience of asylum seekers who refused to let violence, fear, or government roadblocks stop them from seeking refuge for themselves and their families, and appalled by the U.S. government’s reaction to them.

On May 4, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced the end of Temporary Protected Status, or TPS, for approximately 57,000 Hondurans living in the United States. This follows a string of aggressive policy moves intended to expel long-term residents of the U.S. Over the next two years, more than 300,000 individuals from El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Nepal, Nicaragua and Sudan who are lawfully present in the U.S. will be asked to depart voluntarily or face deportation. As a result of this unwise policy shift, America will face a looming economic and humanitarian crisis.

The freedom to migrate continues to be a fundamental human right. We all have the right to migrate. Migration has been a vastly positive experience for the U.S. as well as the countries of origin. Immigrants have made and continue to make great contributions to this country. Although thousands of citizens from the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras & El Salvador) travel every day to the US/Mexico border, they don’t receive as much attention as the migrants traveling with the Refugee Caravan because they do not make themselves as visible.